1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a method for playing a personalized clip when a calling party is put on hold. This kind of clip is intended to encourage a user to be patient if he is put on hold when he calls another terminal that is busy with a call set up previously or if the user of the other terminal temporarily interrupts the call with the first terminal, for example to call a third terminal. A clip is conventionally a musical extract, but it may also be an advertising message or any other type of information. It may be a multimedia clip (audio, video, text), as multimedia terminals are beginning to be used to make calls.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is desirable to adapt the content of a clip as a function of the person who receives it. For example, if the clip is to be an advertising message, it is desirable to select an advertisement for a product likely to interest the user who is on hold. One known method consists in identifying the calling party, insofar as this is possible. To some degree, the subscriber number of the calling terminal can identify the calling party, using a reverse directory. In fact, the subscriber number of the calling terminal is generally sent to the called terminal, unless the calling party has explicitly requested that it not be sent. However, the calling terminal may be used successively by several persons. Thus, it cannot reliably identify a person. On the other hand, if the same person can use more than one terminal, it must be possible to associate the name of that person with each of the numbers corresponding to the respective terminals.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,842,767 describes a voice portal that plays audio clips that can be adapted as a function of the telephone number of the calling terminal or as a function of a user profile previously stored in a table in association with the number of the calling terminal: the clip can therefore advertise a business situated in the geographical area corresponding to the first few digits of the number or the language of the clip may be selected as a function of that geographical area or as a function of a user profile. A user profile is constructed by putting questions to the user concerned or by observing the subjects that interest him.
When the calling party is an employee of a medium-size or large enterprise, encouraging him to be patient when put on hold by playing him a clip specific to that enterprise may be envisaged, the clip providing information on the enterprise or on the department in which the calling party works, instead of playing him a clip specific to the enterprise for which the called party works. This is another way of personalizing the clip that is played on hold.
European patent EP 1 096 770 describes a method including a step in which the called terminal causes the calling terminal to hear a holding audio signal without the called terminal (or its network) having to transmit that audio signal. That audio signal may be an audio signal predetermined by the calling party and produced locally in a private telecommunication network of the calling party, for example. This economizes on the transmission resources of the called network because it is sufficient to transmit a silence signal from the network of the called terminal to the calling terminal.
However, these known methods have the drawback of limiting the choices of the calling party to a single option: listening to an audio signal produced locally.
The object of the invention is to propose a method for personalizing a clip by enabling the calling party, or at least his terminal, to choose between a clip played locally by a device associated with the terminal of the calling party and a clip played remotely by a device associated with the terminal of the called party.